El 28 de octubre/October 28th

¡Feliz cumpleaños a ... Dayanara Torres (1974-     )!

Photo from the Chicago Sun Times

A Puerto Rican actress, model, singer, and writer, Torres grew up in Bayamón, Puerto Rico with her two older brothers, José and Joey, and her younger sister, Jeannette. She attended Colegio Santa Rosa and planned to go to college to study to become an orthodontist, but she was discovered at age 17 and just a year later won the title of Miss Universe 1993, changing the trajectory of her life. After winning the pageant, she became a UNICEF ambassador and toured Asia and Latin America advocating for the organization before moving to the Philippines, where she learned to speak Tagalog and became a major celebrity. She lived there for five years, appearing in many movies and television shows. In 1998 she returned to Puerto Rico and released the album Antifaz. She married the singer Marc Anthony in May of 2000, and the two had two sons together, Cristian Anthony (2001) and Ryan Anthony (2003). After a tumultuous marriage, the two divorced in 2004 (chisme: child support payments were $26,800 a month). In 2008, Torres appeared on People Magazine's "Most Beautiful People" list. She also wrote the book Married to Myself: How Committing to Myself Led to Triumph After Divorce alongside her sister (the Spanish translation was released a year later).  In February of 2019, Torres announced that she had been diagnosed with Stage 3 melanoma. See her speak (tearfully) about her fears, hopes, and planned treatment in this Despierta América clip (Torres announced in the spring of 2020 that she was cancer free and would be checked every few months for the next few years to make sure the cancer had not returned. She speaks about life post-treatment and how she is coping with the Coronavirus pandemic HERE). Finally, see a video about the house she bought in Los Angeles in 2018 in this video.

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